Alexa Schmitz was working on a microbe that could extract rare earth elements from solid materials during her time at Cornell University. The research had potential, but one problem remained: the process was not economical enough for commercial use.
Schmitz and her colleagues worked to improve the microbe, eventually making the technology more viable.
“Maybe we should give it a try,” Schmitz said.
Schmitz is the co-founder and CEO of REEgen, a startup that uses engineered microbes to extract rare earth elements from materials such as minerals and industrial byproducts. These elements are used in technologies ranging from electronics to electric vehicles, but recovering them is not always easy. REEgen is working to use bacteria to make extraction more efficient, with the goal of bringing the technology to an industry that has traditionally relied on conventional methods.
The company was founded in February 2022, after Schmitz’s research in Buz Barstow’s lab at Cornell showed that the technology could be improved.
Improving the Science Behind REEgen
Since then, she has had to work through a range of challenges that had little to do with microbiology, from figuring out how to lead a company with a research partner to earning the trust of customers in an industry she was still learning about.
Schmitz’s research built on earlier work at a national laboratory. Researchers had identified a strain of bacteria that could extract rare earth elements from solid materials and examined whether the process could make money.
There was potential, but the margins were low.
As a postdoctoral researcher, Schmitz worked to understand how the microbe extracted rare earth elements and how it could be improved.
“My postdoctoral project was to look at that microbe, figure out how it did what it did with rare earths, and then make it better,” she said.
Once the team improved the microbe, the technology looked more promising as a commercial product. Schmitz and her co-founder had to decide whether to leave the research where it was or try to build a company around it.
“So it was those two things together, the idea that if we don’t do it, it might not happen, and the fact that this had already been investigated economically and we’d made it even better,” she said.
Building a Company Beyond the Lab
Science was the starting point for REEgen, but building the company brought a different set of decisions beyond the lab. Schmitz and her research partner, Sean Medin, formally founded REEgen in February 2022. She began working for the company in September that year after receiving an Activate Fellowship that supported her salary as CEO. Medin was still finishing his PhD, so it would be about another year before he joined the company.
In the meantime, Schmitz hired Brooke Pian, another colleague from the Barstow lab. Pian became a co-founder, and the two began working to build the company while Medin finished his degree.
One of their first major questions was who would lead REEgen. Schmitz and Medin initially considered being joint CEOs, but she was concerned about what would happen when they disagreed on a decision.
She remembers asking him, “First of all, being joint CEO was frowned upon in investment circles. Also, who had the final say?”
Schmitz said Medin eventually told her he did not want to be CEO long-term. She wanted to lead the company for as long as she could, so they agreed that she would become CEO and he would serve as chief technology officer.
The arrangement did not last forever. Medin left REEgen at the end of 2025 after deciding that the pace of working at a startup was not for him. Schmitz said he wanted more time to investigate problems than the company could afford, and that fundraising had also added to the stress. The two remain friends, and Medin now serves as an advisor rather than an active employee. Schmitz and Pian continue to lead the company.
Earning Trust in the Mining Industry
Another challenge was convincing the mining industry to take the technology seriously. Schmitz had spent years studying microbes, but that did not mean she knew the problems mining companies faced every day. REEgen needed to understand those problems before it could convince customers that its technology was worth using.
“Trust has to be earned, for sure, and it’s earned through relationships,” she said.
Schmitz said she learned to approach people in the industry as experts, rather than assuming that a scientist developing a new technology already knew what customers needed.
She described herself as “a mere biologist, not a mining scientist or a hydrometallurgist,” and said treating industry professionals as the experts was important to earning their trust.
The National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program helped her learn that process. The program focuses on customer discovery, or talking to potential customers to understand what they actually need before trying to sell them a solution. Schmitz said founders may think they understand an industry’s problems without fully knowing what people in that industry deal with day to day.
For REEgen, that meant asking questions, listening to potential partners and building relationships before expecting people to adopt a new approach.
Learning the Financial Side of a Startup
Though she had spent years studying the science behind the business, Schmitz also had to learn how to manage its finances. She said she has become the company’s de facto chief financial officer, learning how to work with cash flow, balance sheets and the different kinds of accounting involved in running a startup.
Schmitz’s mother had trained as an accountant while staying home with Schmitz throughout her childhood. That gave Schmitz a financial foundation, but running a company’s books was still something she had to learn by doing it.
“When I started REEgen, being able to look at the financials and understand how grant accounting works versus accrual accounting versus cash accounting, learning about profit and loss, how you balance a cash flow or balance the books on a balance sheet, that’s basically been the coolest and most surprising thing I’ve learned as a startup founder,” she said.
Bringing REEgen Closer to Commercialization
The company has continued working toward commercializing its technology.
In 2025, REEgen received a $1.1 million National Science Foundation Phase II award and won the $150,000 grand prize at the FuzeHub Commercialization Competition. In March 2026, Cornell also reported that REEgen was working with RETRN Bio and SouthWorks on plans for a shared manufacturing facility for startups preparing to scale their technologies.
Advice for Aspiring Founders
Schmitz now frames her own experience as advice for young, aspiring founders. When asked what she wished she had understood earlier, she pointed to negotiation and earning customers’ trust.
“Negotiation, and learning how to get customers to trust you,” she said.
Schmitz said business school can teach people the basics of starting a company, but there is a difference between learning a concept and having to use it with a real customer. Founders have to understand what the other person wants and how to reach an agreement without losing sight of what their own company needs.
She also spoke about being underestimated as a founder, especially when people see a company as too small or focus on the fact that its founder is a woman.
“Don’t get me started on that side of things. For aspiring female founders, just keep believing in yourself, that’s all I can say,” she said.
To close the interview, Schmitz answered the same question asked of every founder in the series: What matters most at the beginning: having an idea, doing the technical work, or being able to explain the idea to someone who has no clue what it is?
For Schmitz, being able to explain the idea is the most important of the three. The technology can work, she said, but customers and investors still need to understand why it matters before they will support it.
“Having an idea is one thing, but you have to be able to communicate what that idea is in a way that people get the value of it, for themselves or for someone else, so they’ll support you, give you money, or help you do the technical work.”
“And it’s overlooked. I think that’s important too.”
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